President
Muhammadu Buhari has charged his cabinet ministers and financial experts to
think out of the box to develop the most effective strategies for pulling the
nation out of its current economic recession.

“Indeed,
the challenges we face in the current recession require out-of-the-box
thinking, to deploy strategies that involve engaging meaningfully with the
private sector, to raise the level of private sector investments in the economy
as a whole,” the president said yesterday at the opening of a ministerial
retreat tagged: “Building Inter-ministerial Synergy for Effective Planning and
Budgeting in Nigeria.”

He
charged participants at the retreat, held at the Banquet Hall of the
Presidential Villa in Abuja, to design how best to implement his
administration’s plans to rid the country of its dependence on oil, diversify
the economy and bring the country out of recession.

The
performance of the economy under the Buhari administration has come under
searing attacks by notable public figures in the last few days, with many
asking him to buckle down and deliver on the change he had promised the
electorate during his electioneering last year.

In
the forefront of critiques were the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Mohammed Sanusi II,
former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; Prof. Charles Soludo; President
of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki; and the Archbishop of Sokoto Dioceses, Hassan
Kukah.
They all called for more rigorous thinking through economic policies and asked
the president to seek help from experts and private sector players to show him
the way out of the woods.

Buhari
showed that he was sensitive to these criticisms yesterday when he gathered his
ministers and told them to explore more coordinated approach to the formulation
and implementation of the policies of government.

He
told them that there had been mismatch between government planned targets and
budgetary outcomes at the national and sectoral levels in the past years,
suggesting that this might have occurred because the ministries, departments
and agencies (MDAs) had not been working together and building consensus around
common national objectives.

Saying
this had impeded growth and development of the country, the president explained
that the retreat was apt and timely especially coming at a time when the
process for the 2017 budget was in the offing and meant to correct this
anomaly.

“It
is in this context that this retreat has been designed to discuss issues around
the state of the economy and build consensus amongst cabinet members and top
government officials,” Buhari said, adding that the retreat would also serve as
an opportunity to have a general overview of the economy and discuss the
framework for the 2017 budget, its key priorities and deliverables.

The
president, who sat through the first session, said he was ready to listen to
the views of experienced economists and development experts on how best to
implement his plans to rid the country of its oil dependence, diversify the
economy and bring the country out of the current economic recession.

He
said given that the retreat would background the 2017 budget, he expected that
his ministers would come out with a determination and common position on how to
have improved synergy amongst the various ministries and departments for the
effective formulation and implementation of the upcoming budget.

Buhari
expressed the commitment of his administration to leverage on private sector
resources, through Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and other arrangements, in
order to augment the scarce budgetary resources at government’s disposal and
accelerate investments in building critical infrastructure.

He
said it was for this reason that some key non-spending agencies, such as the
Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the Bureau of Public
Enterprises (BPE), the National Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the
National Pension Commission (PENCOM) were invited to participate in the
retreat.

He
said: “We are confident that the level of private investment will grow as we
are determined to make it easier to do business in Nigeria by the reforms we
are introducing under the auspices of the Presidential Committee on Ease of
Doing Business.”

The
president said government would continue to strategise on how it could turn the
current challenges into opportunities for the nation, particularly the vibrant
youth on whose shoulders laid the future of the country.

“This
is why we have embarked on measures and actions that will open up the
opportunities we have seen in the power, housing, agriculture, mining, trade
and investment, Information Communication Technology (ICT) sectors, tourism,
transport and other sectors,” he said, assuring the youth that government would
remain steadfast in its effort to ensure greater progress and prosperity for
them.

Saying
that the task of repositioning the economy for change was beyond the executive
alone, he asked for the support and cooperation of the private sector’s
domestic and foreign investors, the state and local governments, the National
Assembly and the judiciary as well as all well-meaning Nigerians.

The
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, in a private interaction with newsmen
declared that part of the government’s strategies to get the country out of
recession was to invest in infrastructure.

While
sympathising with the suffering masses, Adeosun said the government was aware
that the nation was really heading into a difficult period. She however assured
Nigerians that plans were afoot to turn things around for good.